Addis Abeba — The Miss Scandinavia Organization announced that it was planning to host a special Ethio-Scandinavian Beauty and fashion expo in Addis Ababa Ethiopia next month coinciding with the celebration of Ethiopia's new year celebrations.

The expo will feature 24 contestants from the Miss Scandinavia 2009 beauty contest and the contestants from the Miss Ethiopia 2009 contest, the organizers said in a statement.

Local Ethiopian business man Intl Pageant organizer and Ezana Entertainment & Model agency owner Aklilu Tewelde, who organized miss tourism of the Millennium in 2007 and who is also organizing Miss Ethiopia 2009 in September has been contacted and put in charge of coordinating the event in Ethiopia, and he has apparently succeeded in getting various to Ethiopian Ministers and officials from the Ethiopian Ministry of Tourism to support the project, the statement said.

The 24 Miss Scandinavia Beauty queens are expected to visit the famous Rock churches Lalibella for a photo shoot and hold a cultural fashion exhibition wearing Ethiopian cultural dresses.

"This is the first time in the history of the Miss Scandinavia beauty contest that the girls will visit Africa, several other countries in Africa like: South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania were also on the short list to host this event, but Ethiopia was selected having considered the close and historic close ties between the two countries." The main fashion show will take place in Ethiopia on or just before the Ethiopian New year and the final election of Miss Scandinavia 2009 will take place at the end of September in Stockholm Sweden, it was learnt.

TV crews from 4 Swedish TV stations will accompany the girls to Ethiopia to document this trip, which aims to further cement and build on decades of historic cooperation and friendship between Ethiopia and Scandinavia.

Sweden happens to be home to one of the largest Ethiopian expatriate communities in Europe.